Joint Law Enforcement Operation Collars Carbanak Kingpin

An operation by Europol, the FBI and multi-national authorities has seen the leader of the crime gang behind the Carbanak and Cobalt malware attacks arrested. The criminal operation is reported to have hot banks in more than 40 countries and cost €1 billion since it first appeared in late 2013. Initially beginning with the Anunak malware, which targeted financial transfers and ATM networks of financial institutions: this was later updated to Carbanak and was used in until 2016. “In all these attacks, a similar modus operandi was used,” the report said. “The criminals would send out to bank employees spearphishing emails with a malicious attachment impersonating legitimate companies. Once downloaded, the malicious software allowed the criminals to remotely control the victims’ infected machines, giving them access to the internal banking network and infecting the servers controlling the ATMs. This provided them with the knowledge they needed to cash out the money.”